Views: 0<\/p>
[Note<\/strong>:\u00a0 <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 2<\/strong>\u00a0 page.]<\/span><\/p>\n Harold Kushner<\/b>, a Jewish rabbi, wrote a book titled, Who Needs God? <\/i>According to reviewer, Don Feder<\/b>, (a syndicated columnist) in Kushner\u2019s view of deity and religion, \u201cabsolutely no one.\u201d The book is typical liberal theology, which adapts God and religion to current behavior and thought patterns.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kushner <\/b>writes: \u201cthe purpose of religion is not to explain god or to please god, but to help us meet some of our most basic human needs.\u201d You see, understanding the Bible and obeying God are beside the point. Religion is merely sanctified psychoanalysis, helping us to \u201ccope\u201d by letting us face our emotions, fears, and pains (forget about that sin and salvation stuff). Kushner <\/b>is merely regurgitating the old modernistic \u201csocial gospel\u201d of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Given Kushner\u2019s <\/b>concept of God, Feder <\/b>imagines God\u2019s asking Israel at Sinai if they were comfortable with not stealing. Had they not been, surely, He would have rescinded the eighth commandment. Anything to make His creation comfortable and content here below.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Are we not hearing some of the same things from \u201cprogressive\u201d brethren? Is not the attempt to meet \u201cevery felt need\u201d by the specialized \u201cmulti-minister\u201d staffs of large metropolitan churches (and some not so large that are aping them) an echo of Kushner<\/b>? Are not these socially oriented churches also notoriously soft (if not actually digressive) concerning doctrinal and moral absolutes? Is it any wonder that they condone adulterous marriages (and even encourage them by their \u201csingles\u201d programs), \u201csocial\u201d drinking, dancing, gambling, and such like, and that they praise, support, and endorse false teachers? People are going to do these things anyway, so why make them feel guilty, right? Lighten up! Surely, the Lord could not have really meant those words he spoke about self-denial (Luke 9:23). Why, there is just no place for such in \u201cfunctional\u201d religion.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Do not such liberals accuse those of us who are \u201cset for the defense of the Gospel\u201d with being \u201crigid,\u201d \u201cjudgmental,\u201d \u201cnegative,\u201d and \u201chumorless\u201d traditionalists (a rather rigid, judgmental, negative, and humorless accusation, one might observe)? We should not miss the point that these charges by \u201csweet\u201d and \u201cloving\u201d brethren would apply to every faithful servant of God described in the Bible, including the Christ (Mat. 15:1\u201314; 23:1\u201336; et al.).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Yes,\u00a0Kushner\u2019s <\/b>book sounds like some of \u201cus,\u201d and our brethren are just as fatally wrong as is he. It is all just a bit puzzling. Has he been observing some of \u201cus\u201d and reading what some of \u201cus\u201d have been writing, or have some of \u201cus\u201d been reading him?<\/span><\/p>\n [Note:<\/strong> I wrote this article for and it was published in The Lighthouse, <\/em>weekly bulletin of Northpoint Church of Christ, Denton, TX, July 18, 2010, of which I was editor.]<\/span><\/p>\n Attribution:<\/strong> From thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Views: 0[Note:\u00a0 This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 2\u00a0 page.] Harold Kushner, a Jewish rabbi, wrote a book titled, Who Needs God? According to reviewer, Don Feder, (a syndicated columnist) in Kushner\u2019s view of deity and religion, \u201cabsolutely no one.\u201d…<\/p>\n